Hopefully you guys will like this chapter (especially this first scene hehehe). I'm a bit happy with it myself, but I think this story needs to get a move on... I hope you all feel the same! Much homo in the future, I promise...

More instances of bullying in this chapter! Sorry again about not including the warnings before.

It was the next morning when Feliciano woke up that he noticed something was off. He was in an unfamiliar room, in the dark, with some strange weight pressing down on his waist. He let his vision clear, eyes snapping into focus before looking down and realizing what that weight actually was; it was a pair of pale arms wrapped around his waist, hands hanging limply as the person slept behind him.

He nearly yelped, and he did make a noise; a quick inhalation, short of a gasp. What he did do was jump out of the bed, jolting awake a very startled blonde. Ludwig nearly jumped out of his skin, waking up and realizing the position he'd been holding Feliciano. He quickly rolled over the other direction, thus falling onto the ground with a thump.

Somehow, in his sleep, Ludwig had held onto Feliciano like a teddy bear. "I'm… oh god, I'm sorry," Blushing furiously, Ludwig laughed, his voice strained. He mentally slapped himself a hundred times.

"Aahahaha! Ludwig held onto me while I was sleeping!" Feliciano just laughed it off. Ludwig sent him a confused and embarrassed look, clearly ashamed, even if he'd done it unconsciously. His whole face had turned red, blushing from the tip of his nose all the way up to his forehead, where blonde brows knit into the most embarrassed scowl.

"I… that's just what I get for sleeping in the same bed as you! I should have pulled out a cot or a sleeping bag, or something!" He picked up a pillow and hurled it at Feliciano, and it hit the red-head with a soft whump. Feliciano's laughter rang out, making the blonde feel a little better about himself. At least he wasn't angry; more than one person would've been.

"What time is it?" Feliciano asked. "There's school today."

Ludwig glanced over to the nightstand, at the silver digital clock that stood next to the lamp. 7:05 the large red numbers flashed. "Oh god, it's 7:05! We're already late!"

The two of them got ready in a flurry of flying clothes and hairgel, and then dashed downstairs to put on their shoes and coats. Ludwig pulled on his black doc martens, not bothering to lace them up, and Feliciano donned a worn out pair of converse. They shrugged on their backpacks before nearly jumping out the door to Ludwig's car.

Feliciano hopped into the passenger's seat while Ludwig started the engine, quickly backing out of the driveway and winding down the road out of the neighborhood. It was only a few minutes later, at 7:15 that they arrived in the school parking lot. There were only a few cars left trying to find a parking space, and Ludwig rudely cut one of them off in order to snag a spot a manageable distance from the doors. They jumped out of the car, slamming the doors, and ran full speed to the school entrance. Feliciano was huffing for breath already as Ludwig pulled the heavy door open for him.

Feliciano said a rushed goodbye to Ludwig in the hallway, and didn't even bother to go to his locker before getting to class. He only sprinted toward the English wing, arriving inside the door just as the bell rang at 7:21. That was so close; but he hadn't been late, in fact. His teacher had glanced at him warily, but he'd given a guilty smile and that was all the thought that went into it.

The hour passed by very slowly, with a lecture on grammar. He listened to the teacher for a while, and then slowly lowered his head onto his desk. He'd heard this all before; it wasn't like he was going to die if he didn't listen. He just relaxed his shoulders into the smooth desk, drifting into a shallow sleep. He found it strange that he started to dream in such a place; he saw colors and shapes in a strange surreal dream that slowly focused into silhouettes of people. The figures danced around in his subconscious, entertaining him well. He couldn't place exactly who they looked like, their faces blurry and out of focus. He spent what seemed like hours trying to talk to them, watching them move around.

He was awoken by the sound of the bell again. Quickly gathering his thoughts, he left the classroom. He headed up to his locker, which he knew was right next to Lovino's. The alphabetical order of things really fucked him over, didn't it. Preparing himself for the worst, he walked up to the blue door and dialed his combination. He couldn't help himself from stealing several glances over his shoulder, and he caught sight of Lovino; a very tired looking Lovino. The dark haired twin had circles under his eyes so dark that Feliciano wasn't sure he'd slept at all. His face looked splotchy and his skin was pale, giving him a sickly quality. He simply radiated anger, until he glanced upwards and saw Feliciano standing at his locker.

Lovi nearly sprinted over, barreling past two students as he ran towards Feliciano. "Where have you been, you idiot? I've been so fucking worried, you didn't even call me!"

Feliciano turned back to his locker without any expression. "I went to a friend's." He said simply. "Don't worry about me, Lovi."

Lovino seemed to just get more worked up. "Of course I'm gonna worry about you, Feli! I hardly slept at all, you weren't picking up your phone, and- and- augh!" He cried out in frustration, drawing the attention of several students in the hallway walking past them. "I'm sorry about Tuesday. I'm so sorry, Feli. I just- I wish I could take it back." He looked into his twin's matching eyes with something like humility, and something like guilt. A mixture of both, maybe.

The red-head had pulled out all of the books he needed and put away his backpack, so he shut the locker and leaned against the door. "I know you're sorry, Lovi. I forgive you. But please, be nice to Ludwig, okay? He's my good friend. He's not a bad guy, really!"

Scoffing, Lovino growled, "You can't be serious, he was just shamelessly asking questions! How can you expect me to be nice to such a guy?"

"The same way I can tell you not to hit me."

Lovino looked down at his shoes then. "I'm sorry."

Feliciano just smiled his normal smile, pulling Lovino into a soft hug without putting any pressure on his ribs. Lovino didn't know exactly how to react to his awkward sibling-hug, so he just put his hands on Feli's shoulder blades and loosely hugged him back. "N-now," Lovino began, "We're over this, right? You've accepted my apolo-" He was cut off as someone shoved him from behind. He fell into the lockers beside Feliciano, Arthur, Alfred and Francis appearing from the crowded hallway.

"What the hell is this bullshit feelings jam? Grow up!" Arthur cackled over the hum of conversation. Alfred chuckled beside him.

"Shut up, dickbreath. Don't touch me." Lovino growled, picking himself up from the slump he'd fallen into against the lockers. "What the hell are you even doing here? We were minding our own business."

"Oh, but isn't that our line?" Francis grinned. "You're all but infamous for butting into other people's business."

"Where the fuck did you get that idea?"

"Oh, seems you've been hanging out with Antonio a bit lately…" Francis trailed off, leaving Feliciano confused.

Alfred suddenly moved forward, away from the shrinking flow of students heading to their next classes. A few of them glanced in their direction as Alfred pinned Lovino to the lockers, taking both of the brunette's arms above his head with one hand, and pushing the other arm against Lovino's chest. He kicked at Alfred's shins, but couldn't land a hit hard enough. "Aaaand… I think you owe me some money." Said Alfred, drawled out in a strange tone.

"I didn't even borrow any-" Lovino paused mid-sentence as he understood what Alfred meant. His wallet was in his locker, with only about thirty dollars in fives in the leather pouch.

Feliciano was suddenly very afraid. These people were going to hurt his brother, and take his money and possibly hurt him, if he didn't do something soon. But in his fear, he just kept backing away, backing away. Stop it, he told himself. You're virtually waving a hundred white flags, just stand up for him!

But he couldn't.

"What are you doing, Alfred?" A familiar deep voice demanded. It was Ludwig! He moved towards them. He sounded angry.

Now, Ludwig, being physically bigger than Alfred, and probably more fit than the sweet-loving blonde, was a very intimidating force. Alfred quickly dropped Lovino to the ground, holding his hands up in surrender. "H-hey, you don't need to get involve-"

"Get out of here." Ludwig said in a cold tone. The three of them absconded, cowardly. They were going to be late for class, anyways, whether they cared or not.

Ludwig turned to Feliciano, almost ignoring Lovino, leaving the brunette to stand on his own. He seemed almost grudgingly avoiding looking at Lovino before he asked the panicked Feliciano if he was alright. Feliciano just nodded, exhaling a deep breath, laughing. Thank god Ludwig had gotten there. He didn't know how that would've ended.

"A-anyways." Lovino began, "Thanks… for getting rid of them. I'm sure I could have done it myself, b-but I was just in a compromising position and-"

Ludwig nearly chuckled. "You're welcome."

Feliciano laughed. "Come on, we're all gonna be late for class!"

Lovino dashed off without going to his locker, deciding he didn't really need his history book today. This left Feliciano and Ludwig alone in the hallway again, but they didn't have much time. The redhead just looked up into Ludwig's eyes and clasped his arms around him in a quick harsh hug. Ludwig didn't have any time to react before he let go just as quickly as he'd grabbed him.

"Ve, thank you, Ludwig! For everything!" He beamed as he ran to his next class.

Ludwig blushed as the bell rang through the hallways, signifying that he really was late.

It was at home that night that Ludwig finally started to realize what was going on. He was sitting at his desk, trying to study for a history test. He was studying a test on World War I, reading about battles and soldiers in the trenches. He liked reading about history. It's like drama, but with countries instead of people. He spun a pen in his right hand around between his fingers, noticing his cuticles starting to get dried out from the cold weather. It happened every year; in the winter months his skin dried out and his fingers bled unless he put lotion on them every night. He usually forgot, so his fingers looked like they'd been through a battle. He noticed his thoughts started to slip, drifting over to his conversation with Feliciano the previous night.

They'd had wonderful conversation; that of friends. He hadn't had many friends before that; just a few good friends in elementary school and some acquaintances in middle school, people he asked for help on his homework. With Feliciano, it was more intimate than that, like he could share his personal opinions and thoughts without worrying about it. It was almost… relieving? He heard the ring of Feliciano's laugher in his mind, confused as to why he'd remember that. Why had he remembered Feliciano's laughter?

It then dawned on him.

How in just a few days, this boy had touched his life. For the first time in a long, long while, he felt worried. He felt concern, shed tears for someone else. He wanted Feliciano to be happy right now, just to take some of his problems away. He cared more about Feliciano than about himself, really, something really unheard of, since he'd only met the red-head a few days prior. There was only one thing that fit his feelings at the moment.

He was falling for the kid.

Dammit.

*sigh*

how was that? I'm working hard to keep the chapters just over 2k each! The longest so far was chapter 5 at 2,349 and the shortest was chapter 3 at 1,983... this one clocks in at just about 2,020.

Please review! More reviews, more chapters!